Baltic Dry Index. 1308 -16 Brent Crude 78.30
Spot
Gold 2011 US
2 Year Yield 4.34 +0.12
There are men running governments who shouldn't be allowed to play with matches.
Will Rogers.
In the global stock casinos, more buyer’s remorse as the central banksters pour cold water on early and many interest rate cuts in 2024.
Who knew Wall Street didn’t have the Fedster’s
trapped over a barrel after all.
Hong Kong
stocks extend sell-off, China shares languish near 5-year lows
UPDATED THU, JAN 18 2024 12:41 AM EST
Hong Kong stocks rebounded Thursday, while
mainland China shares languished near five-year lows.
The CSI 300 index was 0.94%
lower, while Hong Kong’s Hang
Seng index climbed 0.3%. Miners led sectoral declines on both
the indexes.
It comes a day after data
showed China’s economy expanded by 5.2% in the fourth quarter
of 2023, missing Reuters poll estimates of 5.3% growth.
In Singapore, Transport Minister
S Iswaran has resigned and faces
27 charges including for corruption, following months of
investigations by the country’s anti-graft agency.
Australian markets extended their losses to a
fifth straight day, with the S&P/ASX 200 falling
0.63% and closing at 7,346.5.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped
marginally, while the Topix was down 0.06%.
South Korea’s Kospi was
hovering near the flatline, while and the small-cap Kosdaq rose 0.5%.
Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes
fell, with the Dow Jones
Industrial Average recording
a third straight day of losses.
The 30-stock Dow declined 0.25%,
while the S&P 500 slid
0.56% and the Nasdaq Composite lost
0.59%.
Retail
sales data for December came in stronger than expected,
indicating a resilient consumer demand and putting aggressive rate cuts from
the Federal Reserve into doubt.
Retail sales were up 0.6% from
November, and gained 0.4% month over month, excluding autos. Economists polled
by Dow Jones had estimated a 0.4% month-on-month increase in retail sales and
0.2% ex-autos.
Asia markets today:
Live updates: Australia unemployment, China markets (cnbc.com)
European
markets head for mixed open as banking officials at Davos temper rate cut
expectations
UPDATED THU, JAN 18 2024 12:27 AM EST
European markets are heading for a mixed open
Thursday as investors continue to monitor news and comments from the World Economic Forum in
Davos, Switzerland.
A number of European central bank
officials at Davos have been hawkish about interest rate cuts, warning that despite
progress tackling inflation, markets have gotten ahead of themselves
in terms of expectations for spring rate cuts.
More
European
markets live updates: stocks, news, data and Davos (cnbc.com)
Stock
futures are slip on Thursday after Dow posts third-straight losing day: Live
updates
UPDATED THU, JAN 18 2024 12:22 AM EST
U.S. stock futures were little changed Thursday
morinng after the Dow Jones Industrial Average notched a third-straight
losing day.
Dow futures were down by 36 basis
points, or 0.1%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures also fell
marginally below the flat line
Discover shares
slid 9% in after-hours action. The credit card company reported that its net
charge-off rate climbed during the fourth quarter compared to
the prior year. Discover posted
fourth-quarter revenue of $4.20 billion, topping estimates of
$4.10 billion, according to analysts polled by LSEG.
Wall Street is coming off a
losing session for the major averages, as Treasury yields rose. On Wednesday,
the 30-stock Dow dropped
94.45 points, or 0.25%. The S&P 500 slid
0.56%, and the Nasdaq Composite lost
0.59%.
During the session, the 10-year
Treasury yield topped 4.1%.
Investors worried that a strong
December retail sales report, which suggests a robust consumer, could mean
fewer rate cuts from the Federal Reserve than many are expecting. Currently,
markets are pricing in a roughly 56% chance of a quarter percentage point rate
cut in March, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.
“The fact that the Fed is not
talking about raising rates is a good thing, but the fact that the market’s
pricing six rate cuts is a problem,” Chris Toomey, managing director at Morgan
Stanley, said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on Wednesday.
“If you look at the fourth
quarter, so much of that performance was chasing, right, and chasing and
chasing,” Toomey continued. “And now people are like, ‘Wait, do I really want
to own this thing at this level?’ And if rates are starting to go higher, you’re
going to get a lot of weak hands selling.”
On the economic front, weekly
jobless claims are on deck Thursday morning, as are housing
starts and building permits data. Atlanta Fed President Raphael
Bostic is also set to speak.
Stock
market today: Live updates (cnbc.com)
Next, the USA is on a glide path to national
bankruptcy, like Argentina’s. The global economy as we know it is coming to an
end. The Great Nixonian Error of Fiat Money is about to go boom.
The
Eye-Popping Interest Payment Spike On Our National Debt
Combined net worth of nation's most prominent billionaires
wouldn't cover a single year's interest payment, analysis shows
By Spencer Lindquist Jan 17, 2024
The combined net worth
of the most prominent billionaires in the United States would not be enough to
pay a single year’s interest payment on America’s ballooning national debt,
which currently stands at an astonishing $34 trillion.
The combined net worth of some of
America’s most prominent billionaires, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg,
Bill Gates, Ken Griffin, Mark Cuban, Ray Dalio, and George Soros, adds up to
approximately $726 billion according to data compiled
by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Meanwhile, the net
interest on our national debt is currently at $730.8 billion, dwarfing
the sum for previous years.
Interest payments on
the United State’s national debt have risen sharply in recent years and remain
on track to continue increasing. Net interest payments on the national debt hit
a whopping $659 billion in fiscal year 2023, marking a massive 39% jump from
2022, when the government paid $475 billion in interest on the national debt.
The comparison signifies that
increased taxation suggested by Democrats isn’t a viable path towards erasing
the national debt, especially as interest payments pile up. The United States
collected $4.4 trillion in federal
taxes in fiscal year 2023, up from $4.19 trillion in fiscal year 2022, yet the
debt increased by more than $2 trillion.
The debt interest
payments continued to spike in October 2023, the first month of fiscal year
2024, when the government paid $76 billion on the national debt interest. The
figure marked a shocking 77% increase from October 2022 when the government
paid $43 billion on the interest.
Interest payments on the national
debt are poised to reach an
astonishing $1.4 trillion in just under a decade in fiscal year 2033, surging
even higher to a projected $5.4 trillion in fiscal year 2053.
More
The
Eye-Popping Interest Payment Spike On Our National Debt | The Daily Wire
Finally, more food price inflation ahead?
Winter
weather snarls air, train travel across Europe
January 17, 2024 2:29 PM GMT
FRANKFURT/OSLO, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Freezing rain in central and southern
Germany grounded hundreds of flights and limited train traffic on Wednesday,
while heavy snowfall in Norway's capital led to the closure of its main
airport.
Oslo airport said it would remain shut at least until 1330 GMT but the
outage could also be extended. Germany's Frankfurt airport cancelled all its
operations from midday as airplanes could no longer be de-iced, a spokesperson
said.
After cancelling all departures from midday, no airplanes could land at
Frankfurt airport from 1400 GMT, they said.
Around 600 of the 1,047 scheduled Frankfurt arrivals and departures had
been cancelled earlier in the day. At Munich airport 254 flights were scratched
and a smaller airport in the southern city of Saarbruecken ceased operations
completely.
"This is extremely rare...there is so much snow that the pilots
can't see the lights on the ground so we've halted all incoming and outgoing
flights," said a spokesperson for Norway's national airport operator
Avinor.
For passengers, the cancellations meant stress and changes in plans.
"I've had nothing but stress since yesterday," said Klaus
Ludwig Fess standing in Frankfurt airport's departure lounge.
His initial flight and his rebooked one had been cancelled, he said.
"Now I'm taking the train to Berlin."
In Oslo, Bente Jensen, 66, was unable to even reach the airport for a
return journey to her native Denmark as train services from the city centre
were cancelled.
---- TRAINS DELAYED, HALTED
German
rail operator Deutsche Bahn also warned of delays and cancellations because of
winter weather, and said it was limiting the top speed for its high-speed ICE
trains to 200 kph (124 mph) as a precautionary measure.
Its
long distance services from Stuttgart and Frankfurt to Paris had been cancelled
due to weather conditions in France, Deutsche Bahn said.
France's
weather service warned of black ice in 25 regions and floods in three other
areas this afternoon.
In
Norway, trains stopped in some areas in the east of the country due to the
weather conditions, train operator Bane Nor said.
In
Germany, an extreme risk of black ice and heavy snowfall would remain through
Thursday in the affected regions, its weather service said.
Numerous
schools in Germany's centre and southern regions remained closed as on-site
education was suspended for the day.
Winter weather snarls air, train travel across Europe
| Reuters
Crop-killing weeds
advance across US farmland as chemicals lose effectiveness
By Rod Nickel and Tom Polansek January 16, 2024 11:43 AM GMT
WINNIPEG, Manitoba/CHICAGO,
Jan 16 (Reuters) - Crop-killing weeds such as kochia are advancing across the
U.S. northern plains and Midwest, in the latest sign that weeds are developing
resistance to chemicals faster than companies including Bayer (BAYGn.DE), opens new tab and Corteva (CTVA.N), opens new tab can develop new ones
to fight them.
In many cases weeds are developing resistance against multiple
herbicides, scientists said.
Reuters interviewed two dozen farmers, scientists, weed
specialists and company executives and reviewed eight academic papers published
since 2021 which described how kochia, waterhemp, giant ragweed and other weeds
are squeezing out crops in North Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota as
chemicals lose their effectiveness.
Over the last two decades,
chemical companies have reduced the share of revenue devoted to research and
development spending and are introducing fewer products, according to
AgbioInvestor, a UK-based firm that analyzes the crop protection sector.
Farmers say their losing battle with weeds threatens grain and
oilseed harvests at a time when growers are grappling with inflation and extreme weather linked
to climate change.
"We're in for big problems over the next 10
years for sure," said Ian Heap, director of the International Survey of
Herbicide Resistant Weeds, a group of scientists in over 80 countries that
maintains a global database. "We are in for a real shake-up."
The database records reduced effectiveness for
glyphosate, one of the most common herbicides, against 361 weed species,
including 180 in the U.S., affecting corn, soy, sugar beets and other crops.
More
Crop-killing weeds advance across US farmland as
chemicals lose effectiveness | Reuters
I
like thieves. Some of my best friends are thieves. Why, just last week we had
the president of the bank over for dinner.
W. C. Fields.
Global Inflation/Stagflation/Recession
Watch.
Given
our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians,
inflation now needs an entire section of its own.
Business heads see Red Sea tensions causing lengthy
trade dislocation
January
17, 2024
(Reuters) - Business chiefs warned on
Wednesday that disruption to shipping in the Red Sea caused by attacks by
Houthi militants in Yemen could affect supply chains for months and lead to a
shortage of tankers needed to transport fuel.
Attacks by the Iran-allied Houthi
militia on ships in the region since November have slowed trade between Asia
and Europe and alarmed major powers -- an escalation of Israel's more than
three-month-old war with Palestinian Hamas militants in Gaza.
The Houthis say they are acting in
solidarity with Palestinians and have threatened to expand attacks to include
U.S. ships in response to American and British strikes on their sites in Yemen.
Maersk and other large shipping lines
have instructed hundreds of commercial vessels to stay clear of the Red Sea,
sending them on a longer route around Africa or pausing until the safety of
vessels can be assured.
"This is extremely disruptive
because you have close to 20% of global trade that transits through the Bab
al-Mandab Strait (to the Red Sea)," said Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc.
"It's one of the most important
arteries of global trade and global supply chains and it's clogged up right
now," he told Reuters Global Markets Forum in Davos.
Freight rates have more than doubled
since early December, according to maritime consultancy Drewry's world
container index, while insurance sources say war risk premiums for shipments
through the Red Sea are also rising.
Banking executives have said they
were worried the crisis might create inflationary pressures that could
ultimately delay or reverse interest rate cuts.
U.S. STRIKES
The alternative shipping route around
South Africa's Cape of Good Hope can add 10-14 days to a journey when compared
to a passage via the Red Sea to the Suez Canal.
Prolonged attacks by the Houthis on
ships would lead to a shortage of tankers, the CEO of Saudi oil giant Aramco
said.
"If it's in the short term,
tankers might be available ... But if it's longer term, it might be a
problem," CEO Amin Nasser said in an interview on the sidelines of the
World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.
More
Business heads see Red Sea tensions causing lengthy
trade dislocation (msn.com)
Britain's unexpected inflation increase in December
is unlikely to worry the Bank of England
January 17, 2024
Inflation across the United Kingdom increased unexpectedly
last month as a result of sharp hikes in tobacco and alcohol prices, according
to official figures released Wednesday.
Economists said it was
unlikely to prompt concern at the Bank of England, which recently ended nearly
two years of interest rate increases.
The Office for National Statistics said inflation, as measured by the consumer prices
index, was 4% in December, up from 3.9% the month before, the first increase in
10 months.
Most economists had expected
the rate to edge lower to 3.8%.
Despite the increase,
inflation remains significantly lower at the end of 2023 than at the start of
last year, when it stood above 10%.
The
increase is unlikely to cause too much concern among rate-setters at the Bank
of England as inflation is below where it expected it to be.
“This serves as reminder that
bumps in the lower inflation road are inevitable, but does not change the big
picture that price rises are coming in much lower than the Bank of England
expected as recently as November,” said Lalitha Try, economist at the Resolution
Foundation.
After the Bank of England in
August left its main interest rate unchanged at a 15-year high of 5.25%,
speculation mounted it could soon start cutting borrowing rates in light of
recent sharp falls in inflation.
The Bank of England has managed
to get inflation down from a four-decade high of more than 11%, but there's
still a way to go to reach its target of 2%. But with food and energy prices
trending lower, there are hopes it could meet the target this year, and start
reducing interest rates.
More
Covid-19 Corner
This
section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
Ask A Doctor: How Does Low Temperature Affect The Transmission And Spread Of Infectious Diseases, Such As Covid-19?
January 17, 2024
Expert opinion from Dr. Alan
Thomas Charly
MBBS
· 1 years of experience · India
Low
temperatures can have an impact on the transmission and spread of infectious
diseases such as Covid-19. Cold weather
frequently forces individuals indoors, where close contact and inadequate
ventilation increase the risk of virus transmission. Low temperatures may also
contribute to a drier interior atmosphere, allowing respiratory droplets
containing the virus to remain suspended in the air for extended periods. Other
elements, such as humidity and human behaviour, do, however, play important
roles in disease propagation. To reduce this risk, it is critical to maintain
following public health measures, such as mask use, social separation, and
immunisation, regardless of the temperature.
More
Technology
Update.
With events happening fast in the
development of solar power and graphene, among other things, I’ve added this
section. Updates as they get reported.
Betavolt says its diamond nuclear battery can power
devices for 50 years
David Szondy January 16, 2024
China's
Betavolt New Energy Technology has unveiled a new modular nuclear battery that
uses a combination of a nickel-63 (⁶³Ni) radioactive isotope and a
4th-generation diamond semiconductor and can power a device for 50 years.
Nuclear batteries may sound like something super-advanced,
but they've been around in one form or another since the early 1950s. Most of
these are what are called radio-thermal generators, which turn the heat from
decaying radioactive elements into electricity by some sort of thermocouple or
a Stirling engine.
In 2016, a new principle was introduced, which uses
diamond layers doped with radioactive isotopes – in the case of the first
attempt, carbon-14 (¹⁴C). The idea is to select an isotope that releases Beta
(β⁻) particles, which are essentially high-energy, high-speed electrons or
positrons. When these are released, the diamond matrix acts as a semiconductor
to generate an electric current.
Betavolt's new battery, called the BV100, uses two
single-crystal diamond semiconductor layers with a thickness of 10 microns each
sandwiching a 2-micron layer of ⁶³Ni. Each one of these sandwiches can produce
current, but they can also be stacked or linked like old-fashioned voltaic
cells to form hundreds of independent unit modules that work together to boost
the current.
The whole thing is sealed in a protective case to shield against
radiation exposure and to protect the battery against physical damage. The
BV100 can produce 100 microwatts at 3 volts and measures 15 x 15 x 5 mm.
Beavolt estimates that such batteries could one day power a mobile phone so it
never needs recharging or keep a small drone in the air indefinitely.
According to the company, the BV100 is in pilot production with an eye
on mass production. A larger one-watt version is expected in 2025. The energy
density of the BV100 is rated at 10 times that of lithium batteries and is not
prone to fire or explosions. Since it generates electricity rather than stores
it in the form of chemical reactions, it is not subject to recharging cycle
problems. The ⁶³Ni eventually decays into non-radioactive copper that poses a
minimal environmental risk.
Betavolt says its diamond nuclear battery can power
devices for 50 years (newatlas.com)
Scale it up for useless EVs.
Electric Car Owners Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather
With Chicago temperatures sinking below zero, electric vehicle charging
stations have become scenes of desperation: depleted batteries, confrontational
drivers and lines stretching out onto the street.
“When it’s cold like this, cars aren’t functioning well, chargers aren’t
functioning well, and people don’t function so well either,” said Javed
Spencer, an Uber driver who said he had done little else in the last three days
besides charge his rented Chevy Bolt and worry about being stranded with a dead
battery — again.
Mr. Spencer, 27, said he set out on Sunday for a
charging station with 30 miles left on his battery. Within minutes, the battery
was dead. He had to have the car towed to the station.
“When I
finally plugged it in, it wasn’t getting any charge,” he said. Recharging the
battery, which usually takes Mr. Spencer an hour, took five hours.
With more
people owning electric vehicles than ever before, cold snaps this winter have
created headaches for electric vehicle owners, as freezing temperatures drain
batteries and reduce driving range.
And the problems may persist a little longer. Chicago
and other parts of the United States and Canada this week have
been stunned by bitterly cold temperatures. On Tuesday, wind chills plummeted
near -30 degrees across much of the Chicago area, according to the National
Weather Service. Dangerously low temperatures and waves of snow are expected to
stick through the end of the week.
---- In a painfully chilly parking lot in Chicago on
Tuesday, Tesla drivers huddled in their cars waiting for a charge.
That morning, Nick Sethi, a 35-year-old engineer in Chicago, said he had
found his Tesla frozen shut. He spent an hour in minus 5-degree temperatures
struggling with the locks.
Finally, he was able to chisel out the embedded trunk handle to open it,
clambering in and driving his Model Y Long Range S.U.V. five miles to the
closet supercharging station. He joined a long line of Tesla drivers.
More
Electric
Car Owners Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather – DNyuz
Long ago when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called witchcraft. Today it's called golf.
Will Rogers.
No comments:
Post a Comment